Facebook must face a class action lawsuit filed in California claiming the social networking site sifted through users’ private messages for targeted advertising purposes, violating both federal and state law.

Lead plaintiff Matthew
Campbell and two others sued Facebook in December 2013, alleging
the company scanned user messages for web links, translating them
to “likes” on the user’s Facebook profile. Data lifted from the
private messages was then used for targeted advertising, the
plaintiffs claimed.

"Facebook's practice of scanning the content of these
messages violates the federal Electronic Communications Privacy
Act (ECPA also referred to as the Wiretap Act), as well as
California's Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), and section 17200 of
California's Business and Professions Code," the plaintiffs
said.

On Tuesday, US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton denied Facebook’s
motion to dismiss the ECPA and CIPA section 631 claims, while
granting dismissal of claims pertaining to section 632 of the
CIPA and section 17200 of the California Business &
Professions Code,
according to Tech Times.

Facebook "has not offered a sufficient explanation
of how the challenged practice falls within the ordinary course
of its business," Judge Hamilton said.

The court said Facebook’s terms of service is too vague to
surmise whether users ultimately consented to the company’s scan
of their private messages for advertising uses.

Plaintiffs said they have a reasonable expectation of privacy
within their user-to-user messaging.

Though it said it stopped the practice in question in late 2012,
Facebook said in an October motion hearing, according
to Courthouse News, that it has the right to analyze user
messages, as it still does to some degree protect against viruses
and helps filter out spam.

"The fact that Facebook can configure its code to scan
message content for certain purposes, but not for others, leaves
open the possibility that the challenged practice constitutes a
separate 'interception,’” Judge Hamilton
wrote on Tuesday.

"Facebook moves to strike plaintiffs' request for injunctive
relief, arguing that it ceased the challenged practice 'nearly
two years ago,'" Hamilton wrote. "However, plaintiffs
have adequately alleged that there is a 'sufficient likelihood'
that Facebook could resume the practice, so the court denies
Facebook's request to strike the injunctive relief at this
time.”

In addition to Facebook, Yahoo! and Earthlink have faced similar
lawsuits. Google’s Gmail is currently appealing accusations that
it violated the Wiretap Act as it scanned Gmail messages for
targeted-ad purposes.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Facebook is fighting off a class action
lawsuit filed
in August, which claims Facebook violated users' privacy by
cooperating with the National Security Agency's PRISM
surveillance program.